Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A city police officer told jurors in 18-year-old Kaily Rosales' intoxication manslaughter trial Tuesday that she admitted having smoked marijuana before her airborne SUV slammed into a car driven by Patricia "Patsy" Hochman in the 3200 block of North Loop 250 West on June 23, 2008.

Eighteen spectators listened in 385th District Court as Sgt. Craig Matthews recounted learning from witnesses at the wreck scene that Rosales might have been intoxicated.

Matthews said Hochman, 53, had been declared dead when he drove to Midland Memorial Hospital to interview Rosales and her passenger, then 16-year-old Mysti Hudson, who were in separate rooms.

Ascertaining the driver of the red Ford Explorer that hit Hochman's dark blue Lexus had no driver's license nor liability insurance, the officer said Rosales then admitted having smoked "a bowl of marijuana" before going shopping with Hudson.

"I told her Ms. Hochman was deceased," Matthews said.

"How did she react?" asked Assistant District Attorney Laura Nodolf.

"She was emotional."

MPD Lt. Brian Bogart testified earlier about his reconstruction of the 4:27 p.m. accident, saying the Explorer hit the Lexus so hard that the undercarriage of Hochman's car was driven into the roadway. "There were gouges in the asphalt where the frame of the northbound Lexus was pushed down," Bogart said.

He indicated Hochman saw the southbound SUV flying toward her and tried to avoid it. "The driver had turned right and then sharply left," Bogart said.

"The Explorer hit the Lexus right under the windshield."

Jurors and spectators grimaced while Rosales turned aside and wiped her eyes with a tissue as Bogart identified roadside photos of the victim's body. "You can see the injuries to her torso and the bones sticking out of her legs and ankles," he said.

"She had turned right and then sharply left. Her face is full of glass from the windshield."

Court-appointed defense attorney Tom Morgan got all five men and seven women jurors to agree before they were seated Monday afternoon to consider probation if Rosales is convicted.

Rosales, who is married and has two children, could get a maximum 40-year term if found guilty of intoxication manslaughter and manslaughter, both second degree felonies carrying possible punishment of two to 20 years in prison.

The trial is expected to last most of the week. Judge Robin Malone Darr is presiding.